Breathe In Hope, Breathe Out Doubt
by Kapow-Panda
Summary: "Slowly, she takes a deep breath. Breathes in hope, breathes out doubt. Hope that he will believe her. Hope that he will help her." When she wakes up to a stunning, glittering light surrounding her and a sense of home and belonging that she hasn't felt in months, Lucy Jones seeks the help of a long lost relative in finding a place where she belongs.
1. Chapter 1: Introductions Suck

_**Chapter 1: Introductions**_

She never liked being out in the rain before, but she hated it now more than ever. The feeling of her damp socks inside of her soaking wet combat boots only made her shiver and wish that she owned a pair of waterproof shoes... And an umbrella. If she hadn't already been miserable, she definitely was now.

She pulls the navy blue duffel bag up on her shoulder and adjusts the ear bud in her right ear as the song she has been listening to ends and the next one begins. A chill of loneliness runs through her body as it dawns on her that she'll only have her Spotify subscription for a couple more weeks now. She knows there are much, _much_ worse things to worry and be upset about with her mother being gone but right now, all she can think about is how this is just another inconvenience of being all alone. What will she do without her music?

She doesn't usually walk around with her headphones in her ears when in public as she likes to be aware of her surroundings, but she is too tired to analyze everything around her right now and the music acts as a helpful deterrent for the time being. Plus, when people see the bright red cord hanging from both sides of her head, they usually don't speak to her, opting to just let her be. The soft voice plays out through the tiny speakers inside her ear and she stares at the wet side walk as she focuses on the first lyrics of the song.

 _There was a time when I was alone, no where to go and no place to call home. My only friend was the man in the moon, and even sometimes he would go away too, then one night as I-_

The same ear bud that she just adjusted falls out of her ear as she collides with someone else on the side walk.

"Woah, you alright, Lass?" She hears through her right ear, Ruth B still playing in her left. She looks up to see a dark-haired man who is much taller than her, but that is not an uncommon trait for a person to possess.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry." She answers, trying to be polite through the surge of frustration at bumping into someone while reaching for the zipper on the pocket containing her cell phone to stop the music and simultaneously leaning to her left trying to avoid her bag sliding off of her shoulder.

"Its alright." She hears him say once she finally pulls her phone out of her pocket and hits the pause button. She should explain that she didn't see him, that she wasn't paying attention because of the headphones but she is embarrassed that she ran into him at all and that feeling mixed with the severe lack of sleep has made her mind completely halt all efforts to ease the situation. She looks back up at him, noticing his black leather jacket and black pants. His jacket has no hood on it even though it is raining and he has no umbrella with him. She figures he must've been in a hurry to get indoors and that must be why they bumped into each other. He's wearing a dark colored shirt and a leather vest under his jacket and her eyes immediately catch the silver necklace with several different shaped charms on it. The next thing she notices throws her for a moment. She realizes exactly who this man is and her heart starts to pound in her chest. This is it. This is him.

What she sees is the hook that is where his left hand should be.

"You're..." She starts, but she is suddenly at a loss for words. Could there be anyone else in this town with a hook for a hand or is she correct in believing that this is Killian Jones, aka, Captain Hook. Aka, the man she has traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to find.

Everything in her is telling her to run. Give up. Go back home to figure something out. But she knows this is the right thing to do. That this is going to make her life so much easier. And besides, if she ran, that nine and a half hour bus ride would be for nothing.

Her eyes drop to the ground, taking in this new information she has received, when she notices that he dropped something when she bumped into him. When her mind finally processes that it is a cell phone, albeit an old flip phone, probably worth nothing, but still a phone and her mind springs into action. _Cell phones cannot get wet!_ Her thoughts scream at her.

"Oh! Your phone!" She exclaims as she realizes it landed in a puddle and bends down to pick it up by the plastic covered antenna. _Just go, give it to him and leave. You still got to see the town, so it wasn't all for nothing,_ she thinks. Ignoring those thoughts, she holds it up to the man in front of her. "Looks like it's gotten a bit of a bath."

He doesn't seem alarmed by this, in fact, she thinks she sees a look of confusion on his face. "I take it that's bad?" He asks, raising one eyebrow.

She wonders how on earth he wouldn't know this before remembering who he is and that he is from a realm without technology. "V-very, you need to place it in a bowl of rice. It helps absorb the water." She says, way too quickly, adrenaline rushing through her. When all he does is stand there staring at her, she adds, "But hurry, or it will be ruined."

He gives her a concerned look, likely wondering where this young girl with such an awkward disposition came from. She is sure he must be alarmed by her jumpiness, her whole demeanor probably screams anything but cool and collected.

But he just nods his head once and looks to his left where there is a building with a sign that says, "Granny's diner"

"In here, we'll see if they have some." He says as he makes his way to the entrance.

She follows him hesitantly. Normally, if she were in a situation like this, she would do whatever it takes to make a fast get-away. But she has a mission and she must do what she came here to do. She wants to tell him who she is, why she's here, but for whatever reason, she cannot get the words out. She convinces herself that she is waiting for the right opportunity.

She wonders if he realizes that she is not from around here.

They walk through the door of the diner as a bell above it jingles overhead and he moves straight toward the counter. An elderly woman greets him asking him what he wants. He asks for a bowl of rice, casually. She notices the way he turns on the charm when talking to her and when the lady responds by furrowing whats left of her gray eyebrows and giving him an exasperated look before noticing the presence of the young girl standing behind him, she wonders if it is because the old woman doesn't like him very much. She holds up the wet phone and the lady tells them that she will check and then comes back a few minutes later with exactly what he had asked for.

 _What kind of diner serves rice?_ She thinks.

"Now what?" He asks, turning toward her, pushing the bowl over on the counter so that it is closer to her.

"Now we stick the phone inside the bowl," she does so and then begins covering the phone as best she can with rice, "and bury it."

"And this works?" He asks, unsure. "Seems a bit ridiculous, don't you think?"

"All I know is that everyone says that when you get an electronic device wet, you should put it in rice." She replies, skipping a scientific explanation she may or may not have googled at one point.

"So then you've never tried it before?" He asks, raising his eyebrow again, leaning against the counter top.

"I've never gotten an electronic device wet before." She says, matter-of-factly. She sits down at the counter, setting her duffel bag in front of the bar stool under her dangling feet, relief flooding her body at the soft padding in the seat. It is then that she realizes how lovely it is to not have raindrops pelting your entire body. _Opportunity?_

Stalling, she pushes the hood of her hunter green jacket backward and pulls the white, knit hat with a brim off of her head revealing a full head of wavy, red hair that is now frizzy from the humidity in the air. At this, even though her hair is much less bright, he is reminded of the hue of Merida's messy, curly locks.

"Aye, well, thank you for your help. I didn't know you weren't supposed to get the thing wet. I don't prefer carrying it around, although Emma gets upset when I don't." He says.

"Emma?" She asks without thinking, wondering why the name is supposed to ring a bell and then she realizes that he must think she is a local.

"You know, Emma Swan? The sav- the sheriff." He says, realizing halfway through that she must not be from around here if she doesn't know who Emma is, the one who broke the curse.

She notices the way he corrects himself and wonders what exactly he was about to say. "No, I... I'm new here." She answers, nervously.

"New? Where have you come from?" He asks, suspicious. 'New' could mean that she hails from Camelot or the second curse. But if she isn't from this realm, how would she be so well adjusted to the concept of technology? He deduces that she must have come from outside the town line. Instantly he is on high alert, remembering the last time someone from this world visited Storybrooke. Greg and Tamara, the ones who tried to destroy the town and everyone in it, who kidnapped Henry and took him to Neverland.

"I'm from Pennsylvania." She says, simply, her voice soft and quiet, like her mind is elsewhere.

Alarmed by her confirmation on being from this realm, and knowing that Emma would turn up any second to meet him, he resorts to making small talk in order to keep her from leaving and to avoid suspicion. "Ah, I've never been there." He hesitantly responds.

She wonders if any Storybrooke resident has been outside of town. She remembers her mother telling her when she asked how she knew all the the fairy tale characters would still be in the town after all this time, that because of the curse, they could never leave town.

She notices that he seems like he's hiding his left arm from her view, likely trying not to arouse suspicion from her. "Its really nothing special. The town I'm from is pretty small." She doesn't know if she should acknowledge what she knows about this town. Should she act like everything is normal here or begin inquiring about magic and fairies and curses?

"Well... So is this one, but I find it has a certain..." He pauses as he searches for the right word. "Charm." He finishes, casually, impressed with his ability to small talk the people of this realm so well.

She doesn't know how to respond. Small talk has always been the bane of her existence.

She was very tired before due to her lack of sleep but the warm, dry, brightly lit diner and the shock of bumping into the one whom she came to find has woken her up and made her ultra aware of her surroundings. Of course, she's used to finding it impossible to just focus on one thing when in public, her eyes dashing to different points in the room and different people entering the building. Always analyzing, always deducing.

"What is it that brings you to the town of Storybrooke?" He asks, curiously.

At this moment, she can tell he feels distrustful of her. _Perhaps they've had bad experiences with newcomers in this town._ It occurs to her that he may think she is going to spill the secrets of this town to the rest of the world. But he needn't worry. She doesn't want to exploit Storybrooke, she wants to live in it.

"I'm... I was looking for someone." _This is it._ She must be upfront from here on out. _No more stalling._

Upon hearing this, he looks at her straight in her bright green eyes, and it is in this moment that he realizes the combination of her hair with her eyes reminds him more of Ariel, than Merida. _Looking for someone?_ Who could she be looking for in this town without knowing about the magic that was involved in it's creation? Surely, he'd be aware of anyone in this town who didn't originally come from another realm besides Emma and Henry.

"Looking for who?" He cannot stop himself from asking, so, grinning pleasantly, he casually adds, "Perhaps I may assist you with finding them."

She raises an eyebrow slightly, noticing how curious he is. "Oh, you definitely may."

He now knows there is more that she has to say. His head snaps up to her, furrowing his brows for a split second in confusion.

She takes a deep breath, gaining the courage to reveal her identity. "Do you know where I can find Killian Jones?" She blurts out. Its as if she is ripping off a band aid, the way that she says it all in one, quick breath. Obviously, she knows that the man she is talking to _is_ Killian Jones, but she decides to phrase it as a question to give him some control over the conversation.

He stares at her unblinking, his face dark and concerned. "Thats me." His head cocks to the side slightly as his brows furrow for real this time. "You're looking for me?"

She nods, uneasiness almost making her wobble in her seat.

"Who are you?" He asks, and its as if the entire diner gets both unbearably loud and silent at the same time.

"Lucy." Her eyes focus on the metal that sticks out from his missing limb, the very object that revealed more to her than one would expect.

When he looks at her with one eyebrow raised as if her name doesn't ring a bell, she takes another deep breath. There is a jingle of a bell, the one hanging over the door of the diner, but neither of them turns to look at who entered.

"I'm Lucy Jones," her voice is full of apprehension and she almost winces at the intensity of this entire situation "I'm your niece."

* * *

 **A.N. (For future reference, author's notes will be in bold)**

 **Aaaaaand thats chapter one, I guess. For anyone who is wondering, I have decided not to publish a full length story for my Spider-Man one shots. This, however, I intend to make a multi chapter story and have already written even more than this. I originally intended to put a lot of the scenes that will be in the next chapter in this first one, but as it happened, this is how I felt it should start out. Therefore, this chapter is much shorter than I planned so expect chapter 2 and beyond to be much longer. I started writing this story back in May (2016) before season 6 premiered and also, before season 5 was over so that is why there is no mention of Jekyll and Hyde or The Evil Queen. Who knows, maybe I will incorporate them in the story later on?**

 **Also, please note that this is a first draft and details about it may be edited or changed at any time. I just wanted to see if anyone was interested in the ideas I had for a story so...**

 **Feedback will be way more appreciated than you know. I think it will actually motivate me to get things written so please show some love to this insecure writer over here.**


	2. Chapter 2: So Here's The Story

_**Chapter 2: So Here's The Story...**_

If she was expecting an outburst from him upon hearing this information, she was very wrong. All he did was stare at her as if she had a tail.

"You're his what?" Both Lucy and Killian, who was momentarily paralyzed by the young girl's words, snap their heads to the voice of a blonde woman coming from the doorway.

"Emma I-" He starts, but stops himself when he realizes that he has no way to explain the situation to her.

"You're Emma?" Lucy says, recognizing the name from earlier. The way he mentioned her made her seem like his significant other. _Mom didn't inform me of that one._

"Well yes," Emma answers with her eyes wide and her jaw low, surprise evident on her face, "and... You're his what?" She splutters a bit, repeating herself.

When Lucy just stares at her, wondering if she needs to introduce herself again or if Emma was just responding out of shock, Emma says, "You're his _niece_?" pointing at Killian, clarifying what the younger girl said.

Lucy smiles halfheartedly and nods her head slowly. "Indeed." She says after a beat, feeling much better now that she has finally revealed her identity.

A formerly absentminded Killian, turns his head between the two girls, and realizes this is not a good place to have this conversation. If anyone hears that she's from outside of town, who knows what they'll do? But the street is not a good place either, and he doesn't want to wait until they can walk all the way back to Emma's house. He needs to understand what is going on now and this diner is not the place to do it. Without consciously making a decision on where to take the conversation, he says, "Follow me," and when she climbs down from the bar stool, grabs her hat from the counter, placing it back on top of her head, and hoists her bag onto her shoulder, he shows her to the doorway that leads to the hallway in the back of Granny's, trying to avoid the stares of the other customers. As they make their way to the doorway, he shoots Emma a helpless look and she takes a deep breath before stepping forward to follow them.

"Where are we going?" She asks, once they're almost at the end of the hallway and Emma has caught up to them.

Ignoring her question and turning around to face her, he decides this is as good a place as any to discuss the matter at hand. "Who are you really?" He asks.

Lucy backs up against the wall, intimidated by the intense look on his face and the way he is towering over her, making her feel trapped. Lucy is still cautious of the man, even if he is her blood relative, he's definitely still a stranger. She came here to check the place out, knowing that even though she is looking for a home, she may not find it and even though she is looking for a family, it may not be here. Swallowing back defensiveness at the fact that he seemingly doesn't believe her, she replies, "I told you, I'm your n-"

"How could you be-"

He stops himself and Lucy thinks he might just be rephrasing the question but when he doesn't finish, she notices the way he's staring at the wall behind her with wide eyes and a look of realization.

"What?" She asks him after a second, _could he know already?_

"Killian...?" Emma says, concern evident in the way she slowly pronounces his name.

"Liam. My brother." He says, and then quickly corrects himself. "My younger brother." His expression is pained.

"I thought Liam was your older brother." Says Emma. Killian nods at her, wincing.

"My father," He swallows, "he had a son after me, named Liam."

"You know about him?" Lucy is surprised, and also relieved that she won't have to explain the _whole_ story to him. "How?"

"My father and I," He says, and he swallows as a look of regret takes over his features making his eyes shift to the floor. _Well of course, his father left him. Must be super painful to talk about._ "We had an encounter, thirty or so years ago. He uh-" he swallows again, "he told me about his third son."

"What you might not know, is that your father was killed some time after that, then." She informs him.

He backs up, turning his head slightly to the side and when he blinks, he takes a second to reopen his eyes. Lucy notices another emotion etched on his face. _Shame?_

"Aye. I knew about that." He says in a low voice. It is quiet for a moment before he gets a brooding expression on his face.

If his younger brother was swept up in the curse, he'd have been frozen in time for 28 years, meaning he'd still be a child when the curse was broken which was only four years ago. He wouldn't be old enough to have a child especially not one who looks to be older that he was last time Killian saw him.

"If you are my younger brother's daughter, how are you here in this realm?" He asks her after a moment.

Lucy pauses to gather the story in her head. It doesn't take too much effort as she has been rehearsing this in her head since she decided to make this trip. Slowly, she takes a deep breath. Breathes in hope, breaths out doubt. Hope that he will believe her, hope that he will help her.

She tells him the abridged version of how her father was taken in by a family that lived nearby. The family was kind enough to let him stay in their house and provide food for him, but he felt that they resented him because he was their child and he just wasn't happy there. She tells him that when he was about sixteen, he came across an old man who had fallen into a ditch and was calling for help.

"He heard the old man and helped him out of the ditch and the man was so thankful, he gave him a magic bean." Lucy's eyes light up with enthusiasm as she explains. "One that is able to transpo-"

"I'm familiar with how magic beans work." Killian interjects, growing impatient.

"Sorry, I forgot you're from a world where they actually exist." she says.

"And you know all of this because he told you himself?" Killian asks, not convinced that the man would tell his daughter these stories with so much detail. Although the whole story fills him with deep regret, he's quite interested in knowing about what happened to his half brother after his father was killed. He's glad to hear of the family taking him in and that he turned out alright.

"Some of it he told me himself, like the part about his father dying and being taken in by a family, but he neglected to mention the part about crossing realms to meet my mom. Most of it I read in a journal he kept." Lucy replies, then continues with the story.

She smiles as she begins speaking about the woman from whom she received her name. "He took the bean home and thought about using it for so long but the only thing that held him back was a girl named Lucille—which also happens to be where I got my name." She gestures to herself, wiggling her head a bit. It was an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, but it didn't seem to work.

Lucille was one of the two daughters of the family that had taken him in. She quickly became the only friend William ever really had in the Enchanted Forrest. The only thing keeping him there. Eventually, he told her about the magic bean and they decided to leave together. As she tells them this part, Lucy notes that Emma has been typing something on her phone for the last minute, looking back up her every few seconds trying to focus on the story and her phone screen at the same time.

She tells him this part with an almost dreamy look on her face.

"They packed up the few items that they cared about and then activated the bean, which took them here." She flicks her wrists backwards in the air, gesturing to the world around her. "Dad never told me how, and never wrote about it in specifics but she ended up dying soon after they arrived in this world and it took him a little while to figure out how this world worked but eventually, he met my mother. And by some miracle, she believed the stories he told her about his past." She lowers her voice when she continues with a slightly playful tone, "Apparently, she's always been a dreamer. Drove me nuts growing up." She smiles longingly, before her expression turns black and she shakes her head. A pang of anxiety washes over her and she takes a moment to try to ignore it before continuing. "Her parents were so against her being with my father that they cut her off and then it was just the two of them, against the world." She says, lowly, before half heartedly perking up and adding, "Until they got married and had me, and then it was the three of us."

Killian just watches her with an intense look including furrowed eyebrows. A short man walks down the hallway, turning to his right before he gets close enough to notice their little gathering and walking through a door with a restroom sign beside it.

Once the door closes behind him, Killian speaks up. "So your father, Liam II-"

"He went by Will when he arrived in this world. William technically but usually just Will. Probably had something to do with the whole 'New Life' vibe he was going for." She corrects him, smiling up at him politely and glancing over at Emma after realizing they probably didn't need to know all of that.

Killian blinks at her. "Alright, Will–where is he now?" Killian asks

Lucy was anticipating having to answer that question eventually, she just wasn't expecting to have to do it so soon. She sighs, clasping her hands as they hang in front of her "I don't know."

Killian watches her stare at the ground with a far away look on her face. For a moment, he thinks she might be tearing up and with a pang, he realizes he might have to comfort this young girl he has never met.

"You don't know?" He asks, expecting to see tears in her eyes when they meet his. He is surprised to see them dry.

"I don't know." She repeats. "He told me he was going on a trip, my mother never told me where, but that was five years ago. My mother and I worried about him for awhile but if he hasn't been back by now, I can only assume one thing." She says.

"He left you?" Killian is a little surprised by the idea that the son of the man who left himself and his older brother, would leave his own child. _The apple doesn't fall far from the tree._

"What? No!" She quickly answers, defensively. "He loved me, he was happy with us, he had no reason to leave without looking back." She tells him, furrowing her brows. She knows for sure that what Killian is suggesting was not the case. She remembers the sight of her parents speaking alone and hearing their hushed tones and never understanding the words they were saying in the days leading up to her father leaving on his trip. She has no idea where he went or how long he meant to be gone for, but she knows that it must've had something to do with magic and she knows he would never have left her for good on purpose.

"Aye, that's what I thought when my father left me." He says, sympathetically.

"He didn't leave me." Lucy says, slightly less defensively. Her voice is lower and softer when she says, "I think he was killed."

Killian feels for this girl, because he remembers feeling the same way about his father shortly after he sold them. _Maybe he was coming back. He just got caught up in some business._ Denial.

"I am sorry." He says, softly, not wanting to break it to her that her father most likely left her with no intention of returning.

"So, Liam number two-" Emma starts.

"Will." Lucy corrects her, trying to be as polite as you could possibly be when correcting someone.

"Will," Emma says, pausing before continuing, "was another brother of yours? And you saw your father?" She asks Killian.

"He was my younger brother. I'll tell you the story later." Killian says sternly. Lucy notes how suddenly uncomfortable he is, sensing that that there is something he isn't telling her. She decides not to ask about it since they just met. "How did you find me?" He asks Lucy, curiously.

Lucy also notes how he quickly changes the subject."My mother and I..." She swallows, not wanting to get into speaking about her mother, but knowing that he deserves this information with all the details. "We were planning a trip to visit and possibly move here. I don't know how she found out about this town but she told me about it a couple of months ago and then we started packing. My mom quit her job as the manager of a book store and we started planning our first trip. We got bus tickets and brand new duffel bags and everything." Her voice starts to waver and both Killian and Emma could tell she was getting emotional. "Anyway, how ever she found out about this town must've been how she found out about you."

Killian nods.

"Where's your mother now?" Emma asks, stepping closer to Lucy.

Lucy didn't break eye contact with Emma as hers started to water. "I don't know that, either." Her voice was steady and low, in fact, if it weren't for the tears in her eyes, Killian wouldn't have known that she was upset about what she was saying. "I think she's dead, but I'm not quite sure."

Killian leans forward so that he's closer to Lucy. "What do you mean by that?"

Lucy takes what feels like her thirtieth deep breath since she arrived in this town, the memory of watching her mother get stabbed twice and fall through a portal in the common area of their own home resurfacing despite all her efforts to forget it.

"She was injured really badly, and then fell through a portal–I think, and I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty s-sure it would've been impossible for her to survive it... Unless the place the portal dropped her was a hospital room." It isn't until she mentions the portal that her voice starts wavering again slightly on certain words, and her eyes are even more watery but she is proud of herself for how well she held it together. At some point while she was talking, Killian stepped away from her, as if reliving his own dark experiences.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Emma replies, sympathetically. Killian gives her a similar look.

"Its fine." Lucy looks down at her boots which, much like her eyes, are still uncomfortably wet on the inside. "It all happened a week ago." Killian could tell by the way she said it that this was the last thing she was going to say on the matter.

"Thats why I'm here." _Here we go._

"What do you mean?" He asks, leaning closer to her as if it would help him hear or understand her better.

"I don't have anywhere to stay. We were already planning this trip so when my mother died, I just came here to see if I might feel like I belonged."

Killian opens his mouth to say something when a woman's voice at the beginning of the hallway cuts him off.

"Hey guys." Lucy looks to where the voice came from and sees a woman with very short, brown hair waving at them. She doesn't seem surprised to see Lucy standing with them which tells her that this woman must be the one Emma was texting before. The woman smiles when she gets close to the three of them, looking to Emma and Killian who seem to be trying to communicate with her through facial expressions.

Hook backs up to let the woman get closer, looking at Emma. His mind was full of questions, needing so badly to talk to her about this situation, unsure of how to move forward.

The brunette woman looks to Lucy and holds out her hand. "Whats your name?" Right away, Lucy can tell that this woman is very warmhearted. Her accepting eyes were an emerald green color like her own and her smile was genuine and inviting. Lucy looks to Killian and Emma, both seeming very familiar with the woman.

"I'm Lucy." She reaches to shake her hand and smiles as genuinely as possible, even though that has been getting more and more difficult lately.

"How old are you, Lucy?" The woman asks, curiously. Glancing at Killian and Emma, Lucy can tell that they are wondering this too.

"I turned fourteen a month ago."

"Well, Welcome to Storybrooke. I'm Snow." She says, and for a moment, Lucy really does feel welcome.

But then she realizes how familiar that name sounds. "Snow? Snow White?"

Killian and Emma watch Lucy's eyes get huge and just like that, a fairy tale has come to life in front of the young girl's eyes.

"In the flesh." Says Snow, shyly. "So what brings you to town, then?" She says, tilting her head to the side questioningly.

"I'm here because-" She jumps at the sound of a door at the other end of the hallway opening, cutting herself off.

In walks a boy wearing a black jacket over a burgundy hoodie, once hand holding onto the strap of a backpack around his shoulder, the other holding the handle of an umbrella. He looks up, seeing the three people standing together and stops in his tracks.

 _Another person?_ She thinks, wishing she could just have a moment to breathe.

"Oh hey." He smiles slightly when he notices that there is a stranger standing present. He waves at her and she mirrors his action, awkwardly. "What's going on?" The boy asks, looking to Emma.

Killian and Emma turn to look at Lucy and then at each as they seemingly look for a way to explain the situation.

"Henry," Says Emma motioning for him to come over. He moves toward them and Emma places her hand on his shoulder. "This is um..." Emma starts, but the heaviness of the situation seems to hit her at that moment. "Killian's niece."

The boy turns to Killian. "Hook, you have a niece?"

"I'm afraid its news to me, Lad." Hook lifts his eyebrows and shakes his head, shrugging.

Henry looks puzzled for a moment but after a beat, he smiles politely and holds out his hand. "I'm Henry."

"Lucy," She shakes his hand and returns his polite smile halfheartedly.

"This is my son, Killian's soon to be step-son." Emma says after a few seconds, gesturing to the boy at the door. "And this is my mother, Snow White, as you've gathered. She's also, sort of, the Mayor." This time she gestures to Snow.

She gives a shy half of a smile, before something occurs to her. "You two are engaged?"

"Indeed." Says Killian, speaking for the first time since the two new people entered the room. Emma holds up her left hand, showing off a simple, classic engagement ring.

"Oh," Lucy says. Her instinct is to make a joke to lighten to mood of the conversation. She usually isn't very good at that but she decides to go for it anyway. "Should I..." She hesitates, second guessing herself, "call you auntie Em, then?" She says in reference to the Wizard of Oz, before adding, "Or does the actual 'Auntie Em' live around here somewhere already?"

Emma grins and Snow laughs genuinely. Henry just chuckles and Killian's expression is lighter than it was before. Lucy feels a wave of relief at breaking some of the tension.

"Emma will do just fine." She says, chuckling.

"Okay, noted." Says Lucy, relaxing her posture slightly, pulling her duffel bag back up her shoulder.

"So Lucy, how long will you be staying in town?" Asks Snow.

"Um, well, that's to be determined." She says, nervously, briefly making eye contact with Hook.

"Well, if you need a place to stay just ask, I'm sure we can find somewhere for you to stay." Snow says, pleasantly.

"You can stay with us, if you want." Emma says,

Both Lucy and Killian's heads snap to Emma.

"Uhh," Lucy starts, at the same time Killian says, "Swan," sounding like he is about to protest.

"What? We've got a super comfy couch at home that tends to get lonely at night, why not?" Emma is being so persistent, now.

Killian has started to shake his head ever so slightly, but Emma doesn't look at him.

Is this woman she doesn't know really offering to let her stay with them? Really?

She doesn't know why she is so caught off guard by this. It isn't like she wasn't counting on her long lost uncle to help her find a place to stay when she got here, but now that it is happening, she is so torn. These people are strangers. Does she really want to put herself in the position of sleeping in their house without even knowing them? It goes against everything she was always taught. _Do not trust strangers. Do not go to their houses. Do not sleep in their presence._ Boy, she didn't think this through.

But what other choice does she have but to trust them? Was that not exactly the reason why she came here in the first place? Trusting that she would be okay? _This is incredibly dangerous,_ she thinks. _But the risk has to be worth it._

This is all so new to her. Not just the town and the people but the risk. Lucy has never been a risk taker. She has always been safe, comfortable, and guarded. Never did she think she would be traveling all alone to a different state, trying to find a man who is supposed to be her uncle, and trusting that he won't try to _kill_ her in her sleep.

But then is occurs to her that not only does she have no other choice... She also has nothing left to lose. Her family is gone. Her safe and comfortable is gone.

The decision has been made. Lucy Janelle Jones is a risk taker now and the world is going to have to deal with it.

"A couch would be great, actually." She says, her tone deliberate and intentional.

"Great. Then I guess its settled, isn't it." Killian says, glaring at Emma. He is angry for sure, his face dark and sullen. Guilt washes over Lucy. She did not want to intrude or inconvenience anyone. Especially not the very reason she came here.

Lucy looks back and forth between Killian and Emma before saying, "If its too much trouble, I can-I can..." But she trails off, not knowing what other options she has. "I can figure something else out." She finishes, not meaning a word of it.

"No, its-"Says Killian at the same time Emma says, "No, don't worry."

"Okay."absentmindedly due to the fact that its then that the temperature of her feet makes itself known to her, and she grimaces slightly at the discomfort. She looks down at her boots, wiggling the toes inside to try to warm them up.

"You okay?"Snow asks, noticing the look on Lucy's face.

"Yeah, I just stepped in a few puddles on the way off of the bus and my shoes aren't waterproof." She answers, a slight, nervous, waver in her voice, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

"Did you bring another pair in that bag of yours?" Emma says, gesturing to said bag.

"No, I mean, there's a pair of flip flops stuffed in there, but in this cold weather, those won't do much good." It wasn't freezing outside. The spring weather wasn't too bad, however the rain and lack of sun made everything much colder. Lucy doesn't know why she even brought the flip flops. Even back home, this spring has been on the cooler side, only allowing for such shoes to be worn a few days out of the past month.

"What size shoe are you?" Emma asks, curiously, a look in her eye that Killian recognized as the one she had when she had a plan.

Lucy hesitates, knowing where this conversation may be headed before replying, "Eight and a half, why?"

Emma makes a face as if she is considering something for a moment before giving her fiance a look and speaking up. "You can borrow some of mine, I'm a size nine."

"Really?" Lucy says. Killian's face is less angry, but still sullen as he gives Emma a look.

"What? She can't walk around in wet shoes in this weather." She says lowly, exchanging a look with him.

They are all silent for a moment. Sensing the tension in the room, Lucy decides its too much of a bother to borrow Emma's shoes.

"Its okay, I can deal with these." She says, noncommittally, shifting to one foot as she wiggles her entire foot trying to warm it up to no avail.

Emma turns to her, glancing back at Hook for a second, before objecting. "No, its alright." She turns to her son, "Henry, would you mind taking Lucy to our house and helping her find a pair of shoes to borrow?" She says, her voice extra sweet, hoping Henry would understand that there is a reason why she needs Lucy distracted. Henry returns her look with a similar one and nods.

"Sure," he turns to the girl, "come with me." he says, smiling warmly. For a moment, Lucy stares at him, analyzing the looks mother and son just exchanged, before turning back to Hook and Emma.

Obviously, Emma is trying to get rid of her, that part is clear, but why? She looks Killian up and down for a second, calculating his body language. He's clearly uncomfortable, from how stiff his posture is and how his eyebrows have been stuck furrowed since he dragged her to this hallway, she can tell that he doesn't really know what to do in the situation and has a lot on his mind at the moment. _Maybe he has a lot to say but doesn't feel comfortable saying it in front of her?_ She thinks, wondering what he could be thinking that he wouldn't want her to hear. _Probably wants to talk to Emma about how much he doesn't believe me._ This thought fills her with stress. She needs him to believe her, needs him to be her last family member. This is all she has left, if she has to leave this place, she'll have to go into the foster system, she'll be forced into new homes full of new people, doomed to the life of a foster kid for the rest of her childhood. Traveling here was difficult enough but doing it all for nothing, it could _not_ happen.

She has to stop herself from cogitating too much because she knows that Henry is still waiting for her to come with him, so she turns to him, and they start walking toward the door. He opens it for her, but she is too caught up in her thoughts as she walks through it to thank him, too busy letting the last bit of hope she had left after watching her mother fall through that portal back home and leaving her home behind to find a magical town full of fairy tale characters, drain from her body.

Before the door closes behind them, she catches one last look at the man that is supposedly her uncle, and Killian watches her go, noticing the way her eyebrows knit together and the look of hopelessness in her eyes as she walks away.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was going, or even who was around. Her mind was in a frenzy of worry. Worry that she wouldn't be allowed to stay here, that she'd have to go back home to the place that was full of memories of things she lost and absolutely nothing else. No one to help her figure out the best deals for buying food, no more music, no one to walk down to the bookstore at the end of the block she lived on with her, no one to tell her not to stay up until three a.m. every night. She'd have no way to pay for the necessities, and it wasn't like she could get a job, surely nobody would hire her until age sixteen. She would be alone, and while usually if given the choice, she'd always rather be alone in her home with a new television series to watch or a new book to read than anywhere else, this time she wouldn't be given a choice.

She knows that its possible, but it sure doesn't feel like it. No one ever taught her how to fend for herself. Maybe she was spoiled but she knew that she was not ready to try doing that. She knows that millions of kids are forced or fight to live on their own due to abuse or neglect, but she knows she is not cut out for it. She was much too comfortable being a kid and growing up so soon seemed terrifying.

As terrifying as the prospect of having no one to rely on was, the anxiety Lucy was feeling wasn't all because of it. It was the uncertainty of it all. The only thing she can imagine is living here in this town, making new friends, having someone be there for her. The fact that she has no control over whether that will be the reality, or whether Hook will allow it, is what is the most unsettling. And even if he did say no, she'd have no choice but to be put in the foster system eventually and that idea would only bring even more uncertainty. This place is the only place where she can find even an ounce of certainty and the thought of having to let that go fills her to the brim with anxiety so quickly she almost stops in the middle of the sidewalk to take deep breaths.

"You're Hook's niece?"

In her anxious state, she had completely forgotten that Henry was with her and she realizes that she has fallen behind his pace quite a bit. She wonders how she hadn't even looked up when the sprinkle of raindrops started hitting her head. She walks a bit faster to catch up to him before he notices that she was so lost in thought, slipping under his umbrella to keep dry.

"Yes," she answers. When he knits his eyebrows together, she starts wracking her brain for another response, disliking the silence between them now that she has been made aware of it. "Its sort of a long story to be honest." She adds, filling the air with words.

"Did you come over in one of the curses? Have you ever been to Storybrooke?" He asks after another moment.

"I wasn't cursed, my father came over with a bean, and my mother was a native." She answers.

"So you," he starts, squinting slightly in thought. "You're from here?"

"I was born here, yes. I'm basically a hybrid, though." She doesn't know why she can't stop talking, but the boy seemed very curious.

"Oh, okay." Henry says, and after a moment of silence neither knowing how to continue the conversation, he says, "So, you're father was from the Enchanted Forest?"

"Yes." She nods at him.

"And he's Hook's brother?"

"Yeah, his younger brother."

"He has a younger brother? I thought there was only Liam." Henry says, obviously confused.

"Nope. Technically, my father was his half brother, but he was also named Liam, as confusing as it may seem." She says, finally feeling that the conversation is going in an easier direction to guide. The panic of her thoughts just moments ago starts to fade as she is being brought back to reality by the voice of an outsider to her restless mind.

"I'm sure its more confusing in conversation. Its this way." He holds his arm out in front of her, pointing to the turn in the side walk that they need to take, their arms colliding as they turn.

The conversation comes to a lull and Lucy gets antsy as she tries to find something else to say to get it going again. She considers thanking him for walking with her but that somehow seems too cordial for her taste. She is typically cold-hearted and unwilling to participate in small talk. She despises small talk with a passion. This is the reason why thanking him for walking with her is such an unappealing thing to say. Although, she does always wonder if she should give into the social pleasantries in order to make others more comfortable around her. But then she decides that since meaningless conversation doesn't come naturally to her, she wouldn't be staying true to herself and she enjoys breaking the social mold.

And it would be insincere if she thanked him anyways. She doesn't feel thankful. She doesn't feel anything but nervous, and uneasy and _tired_. Nervous that a boy she just met not ten minutes ago is taking her to his house to give her a pair of his mother's shoes, uneasy at not knowing what's going on in her life, and tired from traveling hours in a bus, walking from the nearest station to this town and the pressure of meeting new people, making them like her and convincing them of her life story. She is tired indeed. Too tired to feel normal human emotions like being thankful for the sake of being polite.

"So, you're from this world, never been to Storybrooke before, your dad was from the Enchanted Forest, mom was from here, you're Hook's niece and you've got cold feet." He cuts through her mental debate once again and she looks up at him perplexed.

"What?" She says quickly, as she tries to gauge his last remark by connecting the 'cold feet' part to the 'Hook's niece' part. She almost gets defensive and tells him that she is quite willing to come and stay with her last living family member, that she doesn't have cold feet about it.

"Because your shoes are wet." He says, clarifying that he meant she literally had cold feet. "Thats all I know about you, so far." He gives her a half smile, making the mood of the conversation a little more light-hearted.

"Oh," She says, and she considers mentioning how she misinterpreted what he said in order to potentially make him laugh, but she decides she isn't really in the 'lets talk about a ridiculous moment I had and laugh about it' mood. "And I know even less about you." She says instead. "And yet I'm following you back to your house all alone." She says, and he does laugh.

"Hey, I promise no one will be there waiting to chop you up into little pieces when we get there." He says, holding his hand up as if making a pledge. "You have my word."

She chuckles. "Well, thats good to know." She stutters a bit on the word "to".

He smiles a whole smile this time and Lucy finds it oddly rewarding. Making people smile isn't one of her many talents.

"So what do you want to know?" He says, shrugging, lifting his hands upward nonchalantly in the process.

"What?" She asks, dumbly. For someone with a mind that is constantly analyzing and trying to understand things, she sure is slow when it comes to the current conversation.

"About me. You said you know less about me than I do about you so what do you want to know?" She understands now, but she feels the only way to distract him from her slowness is to make the next thing she says a joke.

"Hmm, I know you're Emma's son, Hook's future step-son," she tries to come up with something else, but all she can think of that she knows about him is his name. "and your name is Henry." She gets ready to deliver her joke by rubbing her hands together sneakily. "So I guess I better ask the hard hitting questions, then." She says, an exaggerated, mischievous expression on her face.

"Ask away. And make 'em good."

She smiles with faux enthusiasm as she asks, "What's your mother's maiden name?"

He laughs a loud, whole laugh and she can't help but chuckle with him. Judging by the way she has acted since meeting him, she knows that he was probably not expecting this much comedy from her, but she is glad to catch him off guard with it.

"Swan. And Mills." He gets out as his laughter dies down.

"Swan _and_ Mills? I'm pretty sure you can't have two maiden names." She says, once again, confused.

"I have two moms. One biological and the other adoptive." He says, as if this is the most ordinary thing in the world.

"So Emma is...?" She asks, stretching out the last word.

"My biological mom." He answers, casually.

"If you're birth mom is here, why do you have an adoptive mother?"

"Its a long story, but my adoptive mom is here in town too. Regina."

"Oh, okay." She doesn't feel like hearing a story right now, she likes the lightness of this conversation too much. But she makes a mental note to ask him about it later. "Whats the name of your favorite teacher?" She says, mentally checking off a list of those ridiculous password hint questions on every website.

"Mary Margaret Blanchard."

"Ooh first, middle, and last name, nice one. Real useful information right there." She smirks.

"Hey, you asked." He shrugs.

"I did." She thinks of another question. "The name of your favorite childhood book?" She says, pointing at him as if she thinks this is a really difficult question.

At this, he looks lost in thought and after a moment of staring at the sidewalk straight ahead, he answers. "Once Upon a Time, the book of Storybrooke characters that led me to finding out about the curse." He says, simply, but there is a bit of expectancy in his voice, like he's anticipating that his answer will change the conversation drastically.

But he is right, the information catches her off guard indeed. She takes a moment to ponder this concept, that he is the one who broke the curse, and she is instantly more impressed by him than before because to figure something like that out, you've got to be pretty smart, right? _Or extremely gullible,_ she thinks.

Its not like she didn't know about the curse. She knew it was the reason Storybrooke existed, and the reason Hook was even here. But she doesn't know exactly how it got broken or anything that happened after that.

"You broke the curse?" She asks, for confirmation.

He shakes his head. "No, Emma did. I just brought her here so she could do it."

Lucy ponders this for a moment. If he brought her to town, how did he do it? He's just a kid, like her.

"So, you had a book... And it told you that you were living in a cursed town full of people from a different realm...?"

"I'll show you." He nods his head at a house to their right as they come out from underneath a large tree. The first thing she notices about it is the the yellow bug parked in front of it. She doesn't know anything about cars but she is sure that thing has a nice story behind it. The next thing she notices about it is the shape of the house because it reminds her of a castle. She's seen houses shaped like it before and thought the same thing, but this one is more ironic considering she's inside a town full of fairy tale characters and on her way into one of their houses. It's grey and white and looks to be about three stories high at least in some parts and she thinks their may be a loft inside of it.

"Home sweet home #2" He says, folding the umbrella as he walks sideways up the front steps.

"Wow, what a charming house." She says, halfheartedly. _Who compliments houses? Middle aged men who don't know how to make conversation otherwise?_ She figures no one cares what she thinks of this house. Its a house, its doesn't matter what she thinks of it's appearance.

"You like it? Hook and I picked it out." Henry smiles as he pulls a key out of his jacket pocket before sticking it in the lock.

"You did a good job." She almost sticks her tongue out to make the statement less cliché and boring.

"Thanks." He awkwardly says before he opens the door, wipes his feet on the mat in front of it, and leans the folded umbrella against the wall of the front porch. She copies his actions before following him inside. The house smells like a mixure of maple syrup and some type of wood. She tries not to seem to obvious as she inhales the pleasant scent.

"So you live here with Emma?" She says, taking the house in.

"And Hook. I spend some nights with Regina, my other mom and also with my grandparents too. I guess you could say I have three houses." He says, shrugging.

Lucy doesn't know what its like to have family so tightly wound and close together. Her grandparents never bothered to spend time with her or her mother after her parents got married, therefore Lucy has never met them. She considers that it must be nice to have an abundance of beds to sleep in, but perhaps its difficult to get comfy in one of them when you know you might be sleeping in a different one the next night. Lucy likes things to settle down when it comes to residence. She and her mother don't move often and she knows she would hate it if they had. She was dreading coming here even when it was planned that the two of them would be coming here together. She also hates to travel which was one thing she had to really debate herself on when deciding whether to come here.

"So um, mom's closet is upstairs." Says Henry, turning to the staircase in front of the door.

"As most closets are." _That's more like it,_ She thinks, studying his reaction to her words, hoping to god that they were not too snarky.

But he just chuckles, seemingly letting the remark roll off his back as he ascends the staircase in front of the foyer.

When they get to the top of the stairs, he walks into a room at the beginning of the hall with a king sized bed, and two medium sized, dark-stained wood dressers on the two walls beside it. The bed has a gray and black bedspread with a large printed stripe pattern on it and as she gets closer, she sees that between the large stripes are skinny, metallic, silver ones that shine with the light as she passes by. The pillows are matching colors but there are a couple of small, dark, navy blue pillows mixed in with the ones that match the set as well as some black ones with a lacy trim. There are also two windows with plain, gray curtains hanging on them, and Lucy notices that one has a telescope in front of it that is pointing in a specific direction.

"Closet." Henry says pleasantly, reaching for the doorknob of a door on the other end of the same wall as the door that they used to enter the room. He swings the door open, revealing a walk-in closet before stepping inside and gesturing for her to come closer. It isn't large by any means, the back wall being approximately five and a half feet away from the doorway and the side walls about five feet apart, but it isn't full of what one would expect a grown women's closet to be stuffed full of; dresses.

In fact, Lucy only sees a few, slim-fitting dresses. Two are black and very similar to eachother, the other is short and a hot pink color. She wonders where Emma would wear such a thing, from what she saw Emma wearing today, (dark wash, skinny jeans, a plain, blue, long-sleeved shirt and a dark brown, leather jacket with combat boots) she wouldn't have guessed a dress like this would be in her closet. However, she thought there would be more dresses than this as most women have built up a collection of different styles of dresses in there closets by the time they're her age so either Emma is really not the dress wearing type, or she has no trouble getting rid of clothing but judging by the fact that there is no shortage of soft looking sweaters and more leather jackets, Lucy assumes its the former.

Lucy knows this because of what her mother's closet looks like back home. Her mother had dozens of dresses and skirts and tunics and always had trouble picking out which one to wear on certain occasions. She remembers one day in particular that she had dug through her closet and picked up every single piece of clothing in there, laying all the dresses on her bed and throwing everything else onto her bedroom floor. It was just a little over a year ago, on Thanksgiving, and since it would just be the two of them for the third year in a row, Lucy had tried to convince her mother to wear a pair of semi dressy pants and a sweater but her mother insisted on dressing up rambling on about how it was one of the only occasions where she had a reason to wear something fancy and she was 'not going to let it pass her by'. A few weeks after Thanksgiving, when most of her mother's clothes were still on her floor due to not having time because of her busy holiday schedule, Lucy took the day to pick them all up for her with out being asked, organizing them by article and color and hanging them up or folding them into neat, meticulous piles before setting them in the closet or dresser carefully before her mother got home from running errands. She didn't mind one bit and even enjoyed listening to her favorite songs in the process. She always loved organizing and tidying up, but she had been wanting especially to reorganize her mother's closet for months and finally had a reason.

It wasn't as if Lucy was a "clean freak". She was no where near one of those, as she had a horrible habit of procrastinating folding her clothes after washing them and sometimes used to store dishes in her room for too long after using them. She likes to tell herself that she lets her bedroom get messy and her bookshelf get disassembled over time so that she can enjoy the feeling of putting it all back away at once, but sometimes that just wasn't the case.

Lucy doesn't judge Emma harshly at all for having such a small amount of dresses. She herself isn't the dress wearing type and perhaps clothing is just another one of the things that she had adopted a taste for that was quite opposite to her mother. Her mother wore sandals and flats most of the year even when the weather got cold, Lucy wears boots with wedges and thick, chunky, block heels all year, even when the weather gets hot. Her mother loved skirts on a daily basis but Lucy only owns two of them and she never felt like she herself could get away with wearing one except on very rare occasions.

Lucy steps further into the closet and up to the shoe rack against the back wall. She immediately notices a pair of dark red rain boots and it seems Henry notices them at the same time because he reaches for them before she can.

"These should work, right?" He asks, holding the the pair in his hand and examining them as if judging whether his mother would mind lending them out.

He looks to her and she nods her head, meeting his gaze. After a moment, he steps out of the closet, looking around the room for something. "Do you need socks? I don't know which drawer she keeps them in." He places his hand on the back of his neck as he turns to the dresser.

"I have another pair in here." She pats the duffel bag still hanging on her shoulder.

"Cool. Come with me." He starts to exit the room and she follows, awkwardly, rain boots in hand and before she knows it, he has led her back downstairs and into the living room where he gestures for her to sit down on the couch.

She does so, watching as he moves over to a narrow, black box, dragging it over to where it is right in front of her. When he presses a button and she hears a small beep and sees the screen light up, she notices that it has a temperature on it and then realizes he is turning on a heater for her.

"For your cold feet." He smiles and she doesn't know if its from the heater, but something about the expression seems so warm and inviting. This boy is someone special, she knows this for sure.

"Thank you," she says, actually meaning the words, "you have no idea how great that feels. I've been just slightly chilly ever since I got on the bus this morning." She sets her bag down on the chair next to her but keeps a holding the boots.

"No problem. Wait here." And he's off again, running back up the stairs and she hears him shuffling across the floor once he's all the way up there.

Wondering what he's doing up there, she busies herself with unzipping and removing her combat boots and the her socks one by one. Before putting the new pair on, she lets her bare feet sit in front the heater for a moment while she rummages through her bag for a clean, dry pair of socks.

Lucy has always both loved and loathed packing for trips. The logical part of her brain finds it a breeze as long as she is given details on where she will be, what she will be doing and how long she will be gone. And if you have all that information, packing should be a piece of cake, shouldn't it? Not for Lucy. The hypothetical part of her gives her the urge to pack unnecessary belongings like the third book she packed or the random CDs she shoved in her bag for no apparent reason or the four bottles of different colored nail polish she may not even get a chance to use. She shakes her head as her hand meets all of these items before finally pulling out a pair of rolled up, fluffy, bright purple socks with little yellow lightning bolts on them. She brought a pair of these thick ones as well as a pair of regular socks even though two different types of socks weren't really necessary for this trip. She couldn't resist the part of her brain that kept shouting "What if? What if!"

She pushes her duffel bag aside and lifts her foot in preparation of putting one of the socks on before something falls out of the ball of fabric as she unrolls them. Lucy wasn't ready for the pang of emotion that came along with the sight of her mother's wedding ring in her lap. She completely forgot that she stuffed it inside the pair of socks while she was packing in fear of it getting damaged. Her mother often wore it even after her father was gone. She didn't have a strict habit of keeping it on at all times, but she wore it most days. Lucy found the ring by the sink last night and figured that the day she fell through the portal must've been one of the days she took it off to do the dishes and forgot to put it back on. The sight of it originally brought her to one of her rare moments of tears that she had been having a lot more often as of recent.

She puts the ring into one of her other pairs of socks and shoves it back into the back before zipping it up and putting the fluffy ones on her feet as she hears footsteps coming down the stairs. She takes a deep breath, shoving the piece of jewelry out of her mind.

By the time Henry gets back into the room both socks are on her feet and she is in the middle of pulling one of the rain boots up her leg to where it is snug around her calf. He was carrying a book of a peculiar size. It was thick, like a regular novel but very large and oddly shaped. She couldn't read the title but she watched Henry curiously as he moved to sit beside her on the couch.

"What is that?" She asks, not bothering to hide her curiosity. She remembers the story book he mentioned on the way here, and when he sits beside her, she sees that this is the book he was talking about as it has the same title.

"Once Upon a Time." He says, running his hand down the front cover before opening it to reveal pages of drawings. One with a woman who had long black hair and a bow and arrow, one with a man who had blonde hair and a sword. Part of her wasn't interested and she knew that part would've taken over had he not mentioned earlier that this book helped break the curse and had all the characters from the town in it. She's not usually interested in fairy tale books, but the look in his eye made her wonder what on these pages could convince him his entire reality was wrong.

"Interesting." She says, pulling on the other boot and crossing her legs. He seemed like he had a lot to say, so she decided to let him say it and that she would listen. "Tell me all about it."

He smiled enthusiastically and she leaned backward and got comfortable, knowing this was going to be a very intriguing conversation.

* * *

 **Aaaaaand thats chapter two, I guess. Boy did this end up being long. Please let me know if you prefer long or short chapters, I have so much trouble deciding where to place some scenes.**

 **Also, as you've probably noticed, Hook and Emma are engaged in this story and though that has not happened yet, I believe it will happen soon and maybe I'll write a flashback to that moment in here later on as well. Let me know if you want to see that or not. This story isn't necessarily about Captain Swan, but you all should know that it is included for sure.**

 **I spent the entire day, as well as all night last night editing/rewriting this chapter so as always, feedback would be lovely! :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Bright

_**Chapter 3: Bright.**_

"Are you following?" Henry had been very patient when it came to answering Lucy's questions. She was indeed enthralled by the story and even more by his relation to it. How incredible would it be to go from having only a mother who made you feel like you were crazy to having grandparents who were young enough to be your parents, a second mother who had amazing power of her own, a grandfather who possessed the darkest abilities, a father who had been from the same land as the residents of this town hailed from. It all seemed incredible.

"Wow," Lucy replies, and when she realizes he has actually asked her a question, she adds, "yes, I'm following, but wow."

"What is it?" He asks.

"Its just," she takes a breath, "a lot to take in. Even though I've known about this place for some time now, its still so enigmatic." She shakes her head as she adds, "And bizarre."

"Tell me about it. Imagine finding out the evil queen in your story book is actually your mom." He says, and she tries to imagine it for a moment.

"Well, maybe it feels similar to finding out that Captain Hook from Peter Pan is your uncle?"

He chuckles before his eyes fall to the carpet, and they stay there for a moment, silently pondering something.

"Don't worry, Hook is a good guy."

"Huh?" She wasn't expecting him to say that. She wasn't implying that she thought her uncle was the villain that the stories of this world made him out to be, although when she heard who he was from her mother, she was very wary of him. But she decided to trust him, and arriving here and finding that he happens to be free of a head of dark curly hair a long, waxy mustache did nothing but help her with that task.

"He's a hero, not a villain. Regina is too. They've both made mistakes, some worse than others, but you don't need to worry about whether he's trustworthy or not. He's a good guy. And I'd bet anything he's willing to help you as much as possible."

* * *

"Don't you think we should discuss this?" It came out of Killian's mouth as soon as the door closed, separating him from his apparent niece. His eyebrows remain furrowed as they had since he found out who the girl was.

"What do you think I sent her to raid my shoe collection for?" Emma knew he was caught off guard and frustrated because of it, but she wasn't going to let him take it out on her without giving him as much snark back.

"Why would you let her take your shoes? We don't even know her!" He practically shouts, but he is trying to whisper in order to avoid drawing anyone's attention. He starts to move away and Emma thinks he is about to start pacing but he stops himself and turns back to her. "You sent her to our home?!" He's turning frantic, his eyes wide, and it is then that he actually does begin full on pacing.

"Killian, I really don't think you need to worry. Lucy seems..." Snow begins, trying as best she can to soothe the frantic man.

"Go ahead, she seems what?" He isn't yelling. No, he would never do that to his soon to be mother-in-law.

Snow sighs, crossing her arms, knowing it isn't her place to participate in this conversation. "Like she's been through a lot. Like she's scared."

Killian starts to splutter something, but instead of saying words, he actually does begin to pace.

"Killian, calm down," Says Emma, moving beside him to place her hands on his left arm and shoulder, turning him to face her. She looks into his panicked blue eyes, searching for some part of him that might be glad to have some family around. She had always wondered how much of him is truly comfortable being around her parents and son all the time while knowing that he was the last leaf on his own family tree.

Sensing that it is time to give the two of them some privacy, Snow speaks up. "Okay, I'll leave you two alone now, good luck with your new niece, Hook." She remarks.

"Bye, thanks for coming." Emma halfheartedly says before turning back to her fiance.

"No problem." Snow waves to her daughter and exits the hallway the same way she entered.

"Why did she even come here?" He says, staring at the lower part of the wall.

"Who, Lucy? I think she just w-"

"I meant your mother." He says, impatiently.

Emma gives him look. "I texted her because I thought she would help Lucy feel more comfortable. She's good with... Kids." Emma realizes that Killian is only half listening.

"I don't get it, why are you so upset about this?" She says after a moment.

He meets her gaze then and she can see that Lucy is not the only one whose scared in this situation.

"Why aren't you? She's just barged into our lives a-a-and-"

This time it is her turn to cut him off. "I would be but you seem to be freaking out enough for the both of us." She realizes too late that the remark was not helpful.

He gives her the most glowering glare, but says nothing.

"Seriously, I thought you'd be the first one insisting that she stay with us. Its not like she can go back to her home, she __has__ no home. She has no other family, Killian, she's all alone." She says, with her hands now grasping both of his upper arms, almost shaking him on certain words.

"If she's telling the truth- I mean its quite absurd, the tale she told us." She notices the way his eyes shift to different spots on the wall beside her and realizes he's in denial.

"Well, the story matched up with the facts, she even knew about what happened to your father, how would she know that if the rest wasn't true?" Emma tried to reason with him but she knew he was just stuck in his head as she spoke. She turns around at the sound of someone entering the hall and headed for the restroom. When she turns back around, Killian's expression is grave.

"Maybe its revenge." he said it with a steady, low voice.

"Sorry what?" Emma wanted to make sure she heard him right. "Revenge for what?" She asks, when he doesn't answer.

"Listen, Emma, I'm not proud of it. I regret it everyday." She is staring into his eyes, waiting for him to elaborate.

"What do you regret everyday?" She can't take this look he has on his face, a mix of shame and anger and sadness. He needs to explain himself or she might just automatically start going on about how he's changed and he's not the same man, even though she doesn't know exactly what he's ashamed of.

"I- When Regina was enacting the curse, she didn't want her mother to follow her over, something about love being weakness and what not." He waves his hand around in the air indicating that this isn't an important part of the story. "She sent me to kill Cora, that's how we met." he says, "Anyway, she wanted to make sure I could do it so she sent me to kill my father."

Emma's eyes widen as she processes the information he's giving her. "Regina made you kill your own father? Why would she- how was he even still alive?" Emma did the math in her head and she was pretty sure than two hundred years give or take isn't the average person's life span even in the Enchanted Forest.

"He informed me that he was put under a sleeping curse, married the woman who woke him up and had a third son whom he named Liam." He explains to her that he was willing to send him and his son away to somewhere they would be safe from Regina and that he was angry about him practically replacing his older brother, and that he stabbed him and left him to die all with the same meaningful expression on his face.

They stand there in silence. Emma almost tries to convince him that its okay, that he's forgiven but she knows he will not listen to her, so she brings up the young girl who came to see him.

"So you think she actually knows you killed her grandfather and that she's trying to get close to you for revenge? Killian, she was being honest. Trust me, I used my super power. She's just looking for a home, we have to let her stay with us."

"And why can't she stay here like I did for several months before I got the Jolly Roger back?" Now he's just being irrational.

"She's fourteen. She's just a kid, she can't just get her own room at the bed and breakfast for a few nights. I doubt she has enough money for one either. You really want to pay for an unnecessary room for a fourteen year old when we really do have a perfectly good couch at home?" Emma says, knowing he doesn't understand the appropriate age to spend the night alone in a hotel room and that he isn't fully educated on the currency here in this world. "What do you want her to do? Sleep in a church pew? Find a park bench?"

He sighs, and closes his eyes for moment, and Emma knows his sense of logic is finally kicking in. "She's just a kid and she's all alone." She says, softly, knowing this would put things into perspective. "She said it herself, she's just looking for a place where she belongs."

Emma knows he'd never want a child to be alone (hell, she wouldn't either considering the way she grew up) because she remembers him telling her about how he met Neal when he was a boy, how he offered to be his family, like Milah had wanted, willing to forget about his revenge on Rumplestiltskin. She knows he's just scared of the sudden responsibility and that if he was truly given the choice to take her in without the obligation of being her last living relative, he'd be all for it.

"I just- I just don't want to put you or your family in danger. She may not be that threatening but the things she knows, could easily be passed on to someone who is threatening and who could've sent her here and-"

"Killian, don't worry. Its your decision to let her live here, but you don't have to make it right now. Just give it a few days." Emma reaches down and squeezes his hand, letting him know that she supports him whatever he decides. "In the meantime, though, she can take the couch." She says, smiling warmly at her fiance.

His head was hanging low, but he looked up at her and knew that she was right. He would give the girl a chance, and if she proved to be trustworthy, he would consider letting her live with them. She said she was only in town for a little while to see if it was suitable, but Killian and Emma know now that she's here, she won't want to go back to her lonely life. And as far a Emma was concerned, she wasn't letting Killian send her back to be alone.

"Come here." She says, pulling him into a full on embrace.

* * *

Lucy was lost, Henry was growing less patient by the second, and the heater was starting to feel as if it was suffocating her.

"Wait, wait, wait," She ways, waving her hands in the air in front of her, "So Regina is not only your adoptive mother, but she's also Snow White's step mother who turned out to be your grandmother making Regina your..." She pauses to confirm her conclusions.

"Step-great-grandmother?!" "Step-great-grandmother." They both say it at the same time.

" _And_ your adoptive mother?"

"Yup." He says, chin up, knowing just how insane his life story is.

"And that is," she points to a man that Henry referred to as Rumplestiltkin, although he looks more like some sort of reptile with a human shaped body, "your other grandfather, correct?"

"Also known as Mr. Gold." After hearing Lucy audibly sigh in concentration, he has an idea. "Okay, tell you what. How about we take a little field trip?" He says, sensing her difficulty with keeping track of all of the names and faces. He closes the book and stands, ready to leave already.

Lucy almost bolted from her seat at this suggestion, glad to have an opportunity to get out from in front of the heater. Had she taken note of how Henry turned it on before, she'd have shut it off a while ago. "Okay, field trip to where?" She says, stretching out the word 'okay'. She takes his hand and pushes herself up from the couch.

"Well, I think keeping track of everyone will be easier to do if you can match names to actual faces, not drawings. So how about a tour of the town? I can point everyone out to you and even introduce you to some of them too." He says, and Lucy ponders the idea for a moment.

She's not so sure she'd like to meet everyone in town right now. She's still so exhausted from the bus ride and going through the story book has only exerted her even more mentally. However, she doesn't feel that she's in any place to turn down his offer to show her the town and she is very curious to see what the rest of it looks like. She also feels it best not to let him know she is uncomfortable with this as she is still quite unfamiliar with him, so she puts on a nonchalant expression and looks to her feet.

"Well, I have warm feet now," she gestures to her feet before adding, "so lets do it."

Henry chuckles as he flips a switch on the back of the heater. _So that's how you do it!_ "You can leave your bag here while we're gone." He says as he makes his way over to the door.

She places her bag on the floor next to the couch, figuring that this is where she will be staying anyway, before following him to the outside.

The walk to the middle of town was quiet, Henry pointing out different things like the clock tower and telling her about how he watched it move the first night that Emma decided to stay in town. He tells her about how Emma looked at him when he told her he believed the stories from the book were real with a laugh and she tells him about her own reaction to finding out that a whole other realm existed.

It was about three months ago when she woke up to the most beautiful and utterly terrifying experience of her life. She was in bed on one of the rare nights that she had actually fallen asleep before one a.m. Due to being up early that day.

She remembers waking up to flashing behind her eyelids. Without opening them, in her groggy state, she had assumed it was a car headlight shining through her window and tried to go back to sleep, but the light kept flashing faster and faster and the thought occurred to her that someone had broken into her room and started taking pictures of her while she slept. Her eyelids shot open only to close right back due to the vibrancy. The light was getting brighter and instead of flashing, it just kept dimming itself and getting brighter like one of those artificial Christmas trees that have lights built in with different settings. She brought her hand to her face and rubbed her eyes trying to adjust them to be able to handle the brightness. She shot up in bed and pressed her back against her headboard, curling her legs in so that her thighs touched her stomach. Her mind couldn't form a single thought other than how confused she was about what this was.

She made a few sounds as she scrambled through the bed, trying desperately to escape the light. When her eyes finally adjusted, she could only make out one thing.

 _Bright._

Her eyes dart all around the room and she realizes that she isn't in her room at all at least, she can't see it. Its so luminous that she can't even see the colorful nightlight that she keeps on at night for any middle of the night trips to the bathroom or the kitchen for water. Everything around her is pitch black except for this incredible luminescence.

Along with the light, was a soft but intense sound, one that was absolutely indescribable. It sounded like nothing she'd ever heard before, the only notable thing was the feeling it invoked within her, like she was on the verge of electrifying and thrilling discovery. It made her feel exhilarated and anxious, the way she imagined flying would feel.

It was _so bright._ It was radiant. It was captivating,. It was _mesmerizing_ and _terrifying._ And now that she can see better, she notices the way the light glimmers, its as if its-

 _Moving._ _Its moving._

It is! The golden, glittering light is traveling, it's path surrounding the bed.

 _No, surrounding her._

This light is here for her. She knows that, but it does nothing to calm her racing heart. She reaches out to touch it, wondering what will happen, if its some kind of hallucination or if she's dreaming or if this is a symptom of some kind of deadly condition. She wonders if it is spiritual, like there are angels in her room making themselves known. When she was a little girl, she liked to believe that there was a higher power, and that there were angels and that they lived among her, silently keeping the world from losing it's humanity. She didn't know if that was true and she certainly hadn't thought about it for many years, but in this moment, this moment of intense luminosity, she had no other explanation.

The one she would eventually get wasn't any more scientifically sound.

When her hand meets the glimmer, she feels a warm tingling sensation and in her delirious state, this startles her. She yanks her hand back to her body, the light traveling closer and closer along with it causing her to scoot away from it. Before she knows it, she is falling. She wonders if this is some kind of dream and now she's falling because she is going crazy. But soon she hits the hardwood of her bedroom floor and she smacks her head on the side of her night stand. The stinging doesn't last long, but all of it is enough to bring tears to her already watering eyes. She is so confused, not knowing whether to be fascinated by the light or scared of it. She needs to know if this is all in her head or if this is real.

She yells for her mother twice, and she doesn't know if she accidentally left her door open when she went to bed or her mother poked her head in sometime after she fell asleep without closing it behind her but either way, she is thankful for less of a barrier for the sound and within seconds, the light in the living room flips on. Its not nearly bright enough to compete with the glow surrounding her body but she can make out the outline of the door way and she can see when her mother pushes the thing open.

Between the glimmering and the living room light, she can make out the fear on her mother's face. "Oh my god!"

"What is this?" Lucy says, breathless, searching her mother's face for some kind of reassurance.

"I don't know, honey." She moves closer to Lucy and slowly reaches her hand down. She doesn't seem to feel anything when she touches the light, instead letting her hand continue downward, grabbing hold of Lucy's and pulling her to her feet. Lucy couldn't see anything, the light was too bright and her tears were causing the glimmer to blur and take over her entire vision.

"Y-you can see it?" She uses her other hand to clutch onto her mother's bare arm, feeling unstable.

"I can see it." Her mothers voice cut through the sound like a knife, bringing her to her senses. Was the light getting dimmer? She couldn't tell with her eyes this blurry.

And as soon as she wondered it, the light vanished. Taking with it the intoxicating sound. Lucy stumbled a bit, still holding onto her mother's arms and everything was dark again.

She and her mother stared at each other for several moments before her mother pulled her into a tight hug. Lucy let her embrace take over, confused as hell.

Her mother spent the rest of the morning telling Lucy of the land that her father was from. It was so much to take it, and Lucy had a few moments where she wondered if her mother had gone completely mad. But she knew that if her mother went mad, so had she.

She must still be mad, because she's standing in the middle of the side walk with a boy who's parents are from the same land as the light that woke her up all those nights ago and both brightened and darkened her world.

But now, she knew that if she had gone mad, so had this boy. And that thought was somehow comforting.

She doesn't know what made her recount the incident for this unfamiliar boy, but something about the way he has been so open and helpful toward her since she arrived made her want to be just as open.

"Sounds incredible. I remember the first time I saw magic. It wasn't quite as..." He pauses, looking for the right word. "Well, startling."

"What happened?" She asks, kicking a rock out of her path.

"I had just woken up from a sleeping curse-"

"Sleeping curse? What, like in Sleeping Beauty?" She asks.

"Sort of, more like Snow White." He answers. "Emma broke it, its how we got her to believe in magic. And at the same time as she broke that curse, she also broke the one that brought them here." He says.

Lucy is once again, intrigued. What gave Emma the power to break curses? Can anyone else in this town break a curse?

"Anyways, I had just woken up, and everyone was remembering their pasts. We looked out the window of the hospital and there was this bright, purple cloud of smoke. Everyone was afraid of it, but I was excited because I had never seen magic before."

"What caused it?" Lucy still has no idea why she woke up all those nights ago to magic surrounding her, but its something she hopes to find out while she's here.

"It was Mr. Gold trying to bring magic to this world." He says, darkly. He gestures to the air around them before adding, "And succeeding."

Lucy looks around, noticing that the rain has finally let up. They had grabbed his umbrella before they left the house, but it seems they won't be needing it anymore for the time being.

"So how does one go about breaking a curse, anyway?" She asks, as he refolds the umbrella.

"Depends on what kind of curse." He says, "Sleeping curse is broken by an act of true love."

That's just a little bit too sappy for Lucy. _An act of true love, huh?_ She almost rolls her eyes at the concept. _How do you even define true love?_

"True love?" She says it a little bit too critically, seeming like she is judging him for mentioning it, so she quickly changes her facial expression to a neutral one to cover it up.

He gives her a slightly sardonic look. "Not like that, okay? It was my mom!" He says, playfully, with the beginnings of a smile on his lips.

She realizes he thinks she is teasing him about his mom waking him from a sleeping curse, and she grins, thankful that the conversation has been lightened up. "You must be a real 'momma's boy' then, eh?" She says, poking him once in the arm. They both laugh for a second before a large bell catches their attention.

"Six o'clock already?" Says Henry, looking in the direction of the clock tower.

Lucy pulls out her phone to check the time. 6:00 P.M., indeed. Approximately two hours after she arrived in town. She and Henry have been walking around pointing at things for two hours. Lucy begins to feel anxious as wonders if Hook and Emma have been discussing her arrival and whether they have decided that she can stay with them. She's seen Henry pull out his phone to type things every few moments and she assumes he has been communicating with his mother about their whereabouts. But she is too anxious to be content with assumptions right now.

"Hey, do you think we should tell your mom and Hook what we're doing? Just in case they're wondering where we are or something." She says, casually without sounding as concerned as she feels and for that, she is proud of herself.

"I told them where we are and that we can be back by dinner time." He says, and she wonders what the dinner plans are.

"Dinner?" She asks, now sounding slightly nervous.

"Yeah. Every week, my family meets at Granny's to eat dinner all together."

"Oh." Is all she says. Wondering what 'family' will be attending the weekly meal.

"We started it we got back from the Underworld and defeated Hades. I guess we all realized what was top priority in our lives. You're welcome to join us."

Lucy's eyes widen. "Back from where? Defeated who?" She exclaims. Underworld? Hades? Boy were there a lot of stories to be told.

"Shhh. We'll get to that part soon."

* * *

 **Chapter three, everybody. This one happens to be shorter than the last one**

 **I would love to know what chapter length preferences you guys have!**

 **Patience may be needed until chapter 4 is posted. I may not get it out for a couple of days as it is my own niece's birthday and I get to spoil her tomorrow (woohoo).**

 **Show some love and leave a review with your feedback please! It truly does help a lot! 3 :** )


	4. Chapter 4: Still Processing, Yeah Right

**_Chapter 4: Still Processing, Yeah Right._**

Lucy is sure that if she had gotten more time to think about meeting a table full of people she would potentially be living with, she would almost be consumed by pressure to make them like her. But she is already running around a brand new, unfamiliar town with a brand new unfamiliar boy which is something she did not expect to do this morning when she boarded a bus to take her to a town full of fairy tale characters. She figures if she can spontaneously accompany a strange boy to his house, borrow his mother's shoes, then go on an unplanned tour of the town with said boy, she can surely handle meeting a few more people to eat a meal with. And hey, maybe the meal will be a free one and who is she to pass up that offer.

It is quiet as she and Henry walk towards Granny's diner. She is all out of conversation for the time being, mentally preparing herself for the small talk and casual, insignificant remarks she will have to put up with during the meal.

"Everybody's here already." He says, cheerfully as they approach the diner.

It's then that she starts to feel nervous. Making a good first impression is always a difficult task for her. Although, with Henry, it seems to be going pretty well.

"Who's everybody?" She says, wondering exactly how many people she will be exposed to tonight.

"Just Emma, Hook, two of my grandparents, my uncle whose actually much younger than me, and... That's about it."

"Oh that's all." Lucy thinks he can sense her anxiety because she can see him staring at her through the corner of her eye for an extended amount of time. When she looks over at him, he smiles halfheartedly, but says nothing as they step into the diner.

"You missed someone." A sharp feminine voice says from behind them. Lucy and Henry turn to see a woman with short brown hair standing behind them with a playful smile. She was wearing a maroon pencil skirt underneath a black button up jacket, her black heels clicking against the pavement of the sidewalk.

"Of course, how could I forget!" He says, wrapping his arm around the woman.

Lucy suddenly felt out of place as she uncomfortably stood by.

"Care to introduce me to your friend, Henry?" She says, referring to Lucy.

"Lucy, this is Regina, my other mom." He says. "Mom, this is Lucy. She's Hook's long lost niece."

Regina, also known as the Evil Queen, also known as Henry's adoptive mother and step-great-grandmother. How intimidating.

When Henry introduces Lucy, Regina looks between the two of them incredulously. "Wait, hold on. Since when does the pirate have a niece?" She asks, looking in the window to get s glimpse of Hook.

"Since now." Henry says, shrugging.

"Hi." Lucy says, waving ungracefully at the woman.

Regina looks at her with disbelief. "Hello, dear." She says, hesitantly. She doesn't reach to shake her hand or smile out of politeness. The two females stand there, one watching the other like she will suddenly disappear, the other attempting to look somewhat calm despite being very uncomfortable.

"Shall we?" Henry says after a moment, reaching for the door handle and pushing the door open.

Lucy whips around to follow him just a bit too quickly in order to get away from Regina's grave stare.

Everyone was just sitting down in their seat when they walked in, leaving three empty ones for them.

"Henry!" It was Snow who spotted the three of them entering the establishment first, a man with blonde hair and a resemblance to the drawing of Prince Charming in Henry's story book standing over the seat across from hers watches them knowingly. Snow abandons her seat and makes her way over to Henry with open arms.

"Hey guys." He says, hugging his grandmother.

"Lucy, I see you've met Regina." Says Snow, squeezing Lucy's shoulder.

"Indeed, they beat me to the door." Says Regina, moving past her to take a seat at the end of the table. On the other end of the table is a small child who looks to be around eighteen months old.

"Well, Lucy I don't think you've met my husband, David." She says as the man shows up by her side.

"Hi there." He shakes her hand and she smiles politely.

"Ah, you're Prince Charming." She says.

"And you're Hook's niece." Lucy glances behind him at her uncle. He looks down and starts to fidget with the sleeve of his jacket.

"Yep." Is all she says, not looking to the floor.

After a quiet pause, David and Snow introduce her to their son, Neal, also known as Henry's 'uncle whose much younger than him', and tell her she take a seat wherever she'd like.

She ends up sitting between David and Henry, across from Emma who is between Hook and Snow. Henry is next to Regina who keeps looking over at her with a concerned look on her face.

Lucy wonders if its just her, or if she reacts this way toward all Storybrooke visitors. There can't be a lot of them. Who's ever heard of Storybrooke, Maine anyways?

Everyone else is all smiles. Well, except for Hook, he's been nothing but unspoken words and uncomfortable stares. If it wasn't clear to her that he isn't okay with her staying with them before, then it most certainly is now. The thought of him so against her presence in this town-in his life- makes her so anxious she almost doesn't eat. If he is so against sharing a dinner table with him like this, why would he let her move into his home?

If later, she will have time to really think about this. Time to tell herself that if he doesn't want her here, then she doesn't want to be here, that she would rather be homeless then be around a man who won't even give her a chance, that he is the one missing out on her life.

But here, at this table, with so many new and unfamiliar people around, she cannot think about anything but how uncomfortable she is.

She listens to conversation about people whom Henry hasn't told her about for a little while, wondering about people named Zelena and Leroy. From what she gathered about the conversation, Zelena is Regina's sister, but she has far from a healthy relationship with her. She can't deduce anything about Leroy, however. The way they talk about him, he seems to do a lot of things for a lot of people.

After a moment, Henry whispers in her ear, "Leroy was one of the seven dwarfs."

"Ah." She whispers, nodding her head.

Eventually, however, the attention turned on her as Regina asks where she's from. She answers and then Snow brings up how her friends must be missing her and she has to go on to tell them all how she has very few friends. Two to be exact. They're sisters, one is younger than her and one is older. They come to town every summer to stay with their grandparents who live a few houses down from her. They don't see each but a few times every year. They don't talk on the phone ever and very rarely do they text. _Some friendship._

"Hey, Guyliner, a word please." Says Regina after a while. Lucy knows she is talking about Hook, as she hadn't neglected to notice the smudges of eyeliner around his eyes.

"Of course, your majesty." His tone is dripping with sarcasm and hostility, but he starts to scoot his chair backward and they both walk to the door. He opens the door for her and she walks out with grace and purpose, as he rolls his eyes.

She can't hear or see them well when the door closes due to the darkness that follows the sunset and when they walk to the end of the sidewalk leading to Granny's, they disappear from view completely.

* * *

"Where the hell did she come from?"

"Haven't you already got your answer to that question?" Hook knew what Regina was asking, but the way she was asking it made him want to keep the information from her for as long as possible.

"Where did she really come from?" She rephrases the question.

"Why, didn't you hear the Lass? She from bloody Pennsylvania." Hook has no idea where 'Pennsylvania' is, but he knows that this situation is not ideal for anyone and Regina's judgment was not needed by anyone.

"How the hell did she get here? If she's really your niece, she should be back in our land. How did she get to Pennsylvania?"

"Her father was given a bean back in out land and traveled here with it." He says, darkly. "But while we're talking about him, do you know who he is? He's the son of my father. You know, the man you sent me to kill for your own sadistic reasons."

"You're blaming me for this? Oh no, this isn't my fault. I know how you almost sent him and his son off to hide from me. How you tried to trick me into thinking you killed him before you actually did. You were completely in control. You do not pin this on me!"

"Shhh!" He tries to quiet her words, in case Lucy is able to hear them out here. He holds a finger to his lips as he snaps his head toward the window of the diner.

Regina looks from him to inside the window, seeing Lucy tensely brush an auburn lock behind her ear as Snow says something to her, completely oblivious to the conversation she and Hook are having.

"She doesn't know, does she." It wasn't a question, Regina knew by the way he silenced her that he was trying desperately not to let the young redhead hear him.

"Well it didn't exactly come up when she showed up all of a sudden looking to sleep on my couch."

"Are you going to tell her?" Regina inquires, he stares at the ground.

"I'm not in the habit of telling my darkest secrets to my house guests." He wore a sullen expression as he spoke, clearly not open to discussing this any further, especially not with Regina.

"You know she'll find out eventually. You can't just keep these kinds of secrets from someone like this." Her expression changes to a darker one as she adds, "But more importantly, she can't just stay here."

This catches his attention. He knows he doesn't want to let her stay, but why does Regina seem to have such a problem with it? "And why's that?"

Regina responds immediately, "Because what happens when someone comes here looking for her? What then? What happens when her friends want to know where she is and she mentions a little town in Maine called Storybrooke and they tell their parents and then their parents want to know why she up and left all her things and never came back?"

Regina has got a good point. They can't risk blowing the town wide open to the public. They can't risk the privacy of the entire town. No, she is right. His newfound niece cannot stay.

* * *

When Hook and Regina reentered the diner, they seemed like they had come to an agreement or understanding of some sort. They wore the same expression, one that suggested they had bad news to share, but neither of them said anything about it and remained wary of Lucy for the rest of the night.

She knew, however, that what they were talking about outside was her. She knew that whatever understanding they came to when they reentered was about her. She knew that the bad news they had was meant for her. This made her heartbeat quicken for several minutes as she spoke to the rest of the table, hoping they wouldn't notice how panicky she felt.

While they were gone, Snow, David and Emma continued to ask her meaningless questions about her life, careful not to mention her parents. They had asked her about books and movies and tv shows. She ended up finding that she and Henry both love Smallville and that he really likes comic books.

Hook and Regina walked in as Lucy was telling them of the books she had collected over the past couple of years since she found a love for dystopian novels and Lauren Oliver books and how she actually hasn't read very much of them. Emma smiled warmly at that as Hook took a seat next to her, saying how she liked books but was never in the same place long enough to build a collection or read a lot of them.

Lucy noticed how when Hook settled in his seat, Emma grabbed his hand and he smiled a genuine smile at her for a moment.

"So Henry, hows Violet?" Says David during a lull in the conversation. Lucy looks beside her at Henry, studying his reaction to figure out who Violet is. By the way his cheeks turn red and he looks down at his plate with a bashful smile, she considers that 'Violet' is his potential girlfriend.

Perhaps this is his family teasing him about crush he has on a girl or perhaps 'Violet' is a girl he's in a relationship with. Its almost a funny thought, that someone around her age would be in a version of a committed relationship, because she can't picture herself in that spot.

Relationships have always stirred mixed feelings inside Lucy. On one hand, she likes to fantasize about a boy pursuing her like that, about having someone that you can just trust and be vulnerable with. But on the other hand, she knows it isn't all romance, that getting along with someone at all times is impossible. She doesn't remember much about her parents' relationship. What she remembers is that after her father went away, her mother never really talked about him much, always changing the subject when Lucy would ask about him and as she grew older she just stopped asking altogether.

Of course, Lucy has hopes of falling in love and getting married, but that is for way down the line. She knows that she is no where near ready for that right now or anywhere in the near future.

She wonders if she'll be meeting Violet at all while she's here before Hook kicks her out.

They finished their meal and Lucy watched as everyone hugged and kissed each other upon their departure. With Lucy, they all exchanged polite, 'it was nice meeting you's and were on their way.

Apart from Snow, who had given her a quick hug, "In this family, we like to hug sometimes."

Instead of telling her about how she doesn't think she'll ever get the chance to be apart of their family, Lucy just says, "I'll try to remember that." She gave her a tired smile and then followed Emma, Killian, and Henry as they walked back to their house. When they got there, Hook told Lucy a cold good night before going upstairs and presumably into his and Emma's room. _At least he had the decency to say good night instead of completely ignoring me._

Henry had said good night to both Lucy and Emma before he ascended the stairs as well, although he said it much warmer.

"Well, if you need anything, just let me know. All you need to do is ask." Says Emma, securing a sheet over the couch cushions and placing a pillow down for her to use. "And... I'm sorry about Killian. He's... still processing your arrival." She tell Lucy, handing her a folded up fleece blanket.

Lucy almost started to cry. She knew that wasn't it. She knew he wasn't just processing things. She knew he had already made a decision.

Her eyes began to water and Emma must've noticed this, because she adds, "But don't worry, we will help you out." But Lucy already was worried.

All she could get out was a quiet 'thanks' and after a moment, she added, "See you in the morning." And Emma smiled and told her good night with a sincere smile before turning off the lights and heading up the stairs.

Lucy set the blanket down on the couch before reaching for her duffel bag that was still sitting on the floor by the couch and heading into the bathroom that Emma had pointed her towards before she left. When she closed the door, she brushed her teeth and began washing her face, making sure to clean her skin of makeup she haphazardly applied before getting on the bus this morning.

Lucy isn't the type to feel insecure without her makeup on, but as a young girl navigating through a world who likes to judge you based on your appearance, she began wearing it a couple of years ago. What started out as brown mascara, lip gloss and a foundation that didn't match at all turned into concealer to hide any blemishes and often the dark circles the had made a home on under her eyes (since she discovered the beauty of staying up all night to binge watch a new tv show), powder to keep it in place, brown crayon eyeliner and black mascara to elongate and brighten her green eyes on a regular basis. She was always enthralled by the different products and colors you could play with using makeup, but her mother never let her get out with too much on. However, that doesn't stop her from trying out dark and colorful eye shadow looks when she has the whole day to spend at home. Sometimes, when she's feeling creative before going out, she'll use a neutral brown color on her eye lids, but since the loss of her mother, she's had no creative inspiration to play around with her look.

She dries and moisturizes her face, staring at her reflection for a moment. Her eyes are not huge, but average size. The color has always been something she was happy with and the inner corners of them point slightly downward while the upper lash line is round. Her brows are a light brown with a strong, thin arch, (too thin in her opinion) and they sit low above her eyelids. Her face shape is more on the narrow side but her chin is shorter making her jaw look round and a bit younger than she is. Her cheekbones are pretty defined despite only being fourteen and her nose is slightly narrow, short and round at the bottom with a sharp slope. Her mouth is small but her bottom lip is very plump and round while her cupid's bow is thinner but more defined. Her skin is very pale, but unlike many red heads, it is not covered in freckles. There are small, light clusters of freckles here and there, mostly around her nose and cheeks, but the rest of her face is mostly clear.

Lucy would never describe herself as skinny, but her mother always taught her to eat healthy with a few exceptions. She is comfortable doing so, never taking her size too seriously so long as she felt healthy. Of course, she has her moments when her thighs seem way too big despite her hips being narrow set. But even though she felt that way sometimes, she never desired a gap between her thighs and could never commit to cutting food out of her diet. All of her limbs are short and the source of her small height. Her stomach is not flat and her chest has always been more developed than most girls her age. Overall, Lucy would describe her body as ordinary, not small but not big, and for now, she doesn't worry about it.

Her auburn hair is naturally wavy but also frizzy when she doesn't dry it. She hates blow drying it with a burning passion, opting to let it air dry and then straighten the frizz out of it later. Much like makeup, she likes to style her hair depending on her mood. The past week has seen her hair in its natural, air dried state with no straightening and barely any brushing. Today was no different as it was the first time she left her house since losing her mother.

For the first time since getting off the bus and running into Hook, she starts to think deeply about her mother. This, coming here alone, meeting her Uncle and Emma and Henry and Snow, it all feels like the first step to moving on.

That's good, isn't it? That's what you want to do when you lose someone right? You want to cut your grieving process as short as you can and move on, don't you? Lucy doesn't want to fall into a hole and stop living her life. She knows the grieving process has gone by abnormally fast, but she has always been the type to rip the band aid off and get the hell over it. However, as one could imagine, that is so much more difficult to do when you lose someone. Then there's the possibility of her mother surviving a portal trip in her condition. Lucy has tried and tried so hard not to think about that over the past few days. After her mother was gone, she was sure she was alive and considered coming to Storybrooke to look for a way to find her mother using magic. But then she realized, she had no idea how portals worked or where her mother went. She had to face the fact that even if her mother was still alive, it was impossible for Lucy to ever see her again. That thought was overwhelming and painful but also freeing. It was like she was finally deciding that the life she had was finished and she had to start with something new. It was scary and she has moments when she realizes that she will never be able to talk to her mom or hug her or listen to her ramble about the new releases at the book store. But when those thoughts occur, she has to shove them away and keep moving. Slowly, its getting easier to keep herself from going to that dark place and shutting down, but she knows she still has a long way to go.

Right now is one of those moments where she can't think of anything but how she can no longer walk into the next room and find her mother painting her toe nails a bright green color.

Her breathing is heavy as she reaches into her bag and pulls out a pair of grey leggings and an over size t-shirt she got from a bin of her father's old clothes that her mother kept under her bed. She changes into the clothes, grabs her bag and flicks the bathroom light off as she exits.

As she lays down, and the gravity of sleeping in someone else's house because hers is just a shell of the family she once had hits her. In this moment, she finally lets herself cry for the first time since the day her mother left. Before rolling over to sob into her pillow, she reaches into her duffel bag and pulls out the pair of socks containing her mothers wedding ring and slips it onto her finger.

* * *

 **Few. Sorry this one took so long, I was dreading the dinner scene because I didn't really have a clear idea of how I wanted it to go and also am terrible at giving physical descriptions of my characters. I figured you guys might want to know what Lucy looks like by now so I hope you guys didn't mind waiting for this one.**

 **In other news, I've realized that I'm actually very unfamiliar with this site as I accidentally left a review on chapter 2 of my own story and can't for the life of me figure out how to delete it.**

 **Bare with me as I try to navigate through this website and leave me a review with your feedback! (:**

 **3**


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